Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Every Google result now looks like an ad

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 1001 posts

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#31

Post by dehrmann »

Jerry2 wrote: post #15

With each AdWords display change, Google's been adding billions of dollars to their revenue by confusing and fooling their users and blurring the line between the content and ads. A visual guide: "A (mostly comprehensive history of Google's ad shading and labeling" https://i.imgur.com/0RxdzBE.png

For branded keywords, it's not just shady, it's racketeering. You wouldn't want your competitor to show up first when someone searches for your brand, would you? Then pay up.

E.g. https://i.imgur.com/SfomkdQ.png; the second result is a competitor's ad, the third result is the organic result.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#32

Post by reroute1 »

city41 wrote: post #22
reroute1 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I see the same, it's really easy to tell what is an ad and what isn't...

The distinction between the two has certainly gone down though (by quite a bit IMO). This feels like boiling a frog.

I guess it depends on the user. I can't really put myself in the mindset of someone else, but I am pretty sure I would never accidentally click an ad and not realize it. Maybe others who don't pay attention to this kind of thing might be affected though.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#35

Post by seanwilson »

I admit it's weird seeing a sudden change to how search results are displayed, but I think the use of favicons help draw your eye to brands you trust so I don't mind it.

If this helps ads mix in with real search results, maybe the ads need to be changed to stand out more? I feel people are focusing on "favicons = bad" instead of "ads looking the same as search results = bad".

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#36

Post by dcchambers »

I do think that Google has done a lot of work to objectively add value to the results page of most search queries (eg pulling data straight from websites like Wikipedia, giving better page previews, etc).

However they are an ad company - and they ultimately benefit from blurring the line between an advertisement and a "real" result. I do feel like it is harder to find certain types of results as a "power user" though, and it feels like the quality of results rapidly drops off after the first page. I am not sure if the fault lies with Google or with spammy websites hacking the SEO.

I wish Google had something like duckduckgo.com/lite (also ddg.gg/lite) for the atypical "power user." It's nothing but text results. I find it really useful for certain types of searches and when you don't want to be bothered by how "busy" the Google search results page has become.

Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad

#37

Post by seanwilson »

Analemma_ wrote: post #13
lykr0n wrote: post #3

I wish there was a way to directly help Bing/DuckDuckGo/Yandex improve their search results. I've tried both, and it's just not the same. Google I can bang in cryptic queries like > centos 7 tuned no daemon and get the 3rd link about how to run tuned in a no daemon mode. Bing/DuckDuckGo have the article at around 7th or 8th place, but prefaced by a lot of "while technically not wrong, not what I'm looking for" links.…

I used to work at Bing. If you really want Bing to improve, the best thing you can do is just use it: clicks on search results, plus backs and dwell times, are vital training data. Ideally you could use Bing as your default engine, then fall back to Google whenever there's a search that doesn't yield good results. If you have the time, you can also use the Feedback link on the bottom-right of the page to report bad s…

> clicks on search results, plus backs and dwell times, are vital training data

Interesting. Can you explain more on what is tracked after a user clicks a result and how this data is used?

Post reply on HN